The History of the Z from 240Z to 370Z

Nissan’s Z series sales continued along at a steady pace until the late 80’ when it began to take a steep decline due to changing trends. It was in the late 80’s that consumers turned from compact cars and sports coupes to the mini-van replacement – called Sport Utility Vehicle’s. Recognizing the markets turn away from the compact car, Nissan’s Z series decided to focus less on being the "luxury-sports” vehicle and more on being an all out die hard enthusiasts’ sports car. Introduce: the fourth generation 300ZX, the Z32. Once again Nissan hit the nail on the head. This sports car was completely redesigned with sleeker, sexier, more contoured body lines of the more exotic sports car lines, bringing it right back into the playing field with the big boys.

Mike Kojima's Z32 300ZX Twin Turbo

Generation: Fourth (Z32) 300ZX Production: 1989 - 2000 Engine: VG30DEV6 VG30DETTV6 Transmission: 4 Speed Automatic 5 Speed Manual Brakes: Front - Discs / Rear - Discs Suspension: Independent Multi Link Horsepower: 230 hp (VG30DE) 300 HP (VG30DETT) 0 - 60 mph: 7.0 seconds

Though it still ran the VG30, the only thing that remained from its predecessor was its bore and stroke. The block, crankshaft, and connecting rods were completely redesigned. This 2960-cc DOHC, variable cam timing, 4-valve per cylinder V6 made 222 horsepower, and the twin turbo version made 300. The powerful engines drove the wheels through either a 5-speed manual or 4 speed automatic transmissions, feeding a viscous limited slip differential. The chassis featured a sophisticated and exotic multilink suspension with 4-wheel steering and the brakes were large ventilated discs with racing type four piston fixed calipers at the front and two piston calipers in the rear.  Not only did the sleek design place this car in the same field as the big boys, its performance played hard with them too. The Z32 was designed as a world class exotic beater and was a bit of technical terror, the first of a series of Japanese supercars from Toyota, Mazda and Honda.  There cars were examples of Japanese engineering at the peak of Japan’s global dominance before their bubble economy burst.

Motor Trend magazine and Car and Driver dubbed the 300ZX as their "Import Car of the Year" in 1990, Automobile Magazine called it an "All-Star" and gave it the recognition of being "1990’s Design of the Year”, and Car and Driver described it best as: "No more poity-toity, hippy-dippy fender ware for this debutante." She winks, ‘lets dance’".